Anxiety Disorders and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Panic Disorder
Panic attacks are episodes of intense fear that can strike without warning. Fear of having another attack can take over a person’s life and lead them to avoid places or situations where another panic attack may strike. Significant avoidance of situations that “might cause a panic attack” is called “agoraphobia” and may lead the person to drastically narrow their range of activities.

 

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
People with OCD suffer from repeated, unwanted thoughts that lead to compulsive behavior that may feel impossible to stop or control. Common themes of these thoughts include: Contamination, violence, religious, sexual, asymmetry, and “not-just-right” thoughts.

 

Fears/Phobias 
An extreme and irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger; the fear leads to avoidance of objects or situations and can cause people to limit their lives unnecessarily. People can develop a phobia of almost anything.

 

Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder) 
People with social phobia have an overwhelming fear of scrutiny, embarrassment, or humiliation in some or all social situations, which leads to avoidance of many potentially pleasurable and meaningful activities. This is much more extreme than normal levels of shyness.

 

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD can be caused by living through or seeing something that’s extremely upsetting and dangerous. The trauma may feel like it is happening all over again. People may feel tortured by memories that generate intense levels of anxiety and they tend to avoid things that might trigger those memories.

 

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (Persistent Worry) 
People with GAD experience persistent worry almost daily for at least six months. The worry is seen as excessive and uncontrollable and can be about anything.